"Two Janissaries" from The Costume of Turkey, 1802

An original plate titled "Two Janissaries" from The Costume of Turkey, the celebrated series published on 1 January 1802 by William Miller of Old Bond Street, London. The image was drawn by Octavian Dalvimart and engraved by Thomas Dadley (credited as J. Dadley in some references), working from the artist's observations of Ottoman military regalia and court attire made on site.

The plate portrays two Janissaries, the elite infantry and ceremonial guards of the Ottoman court, in an array of military attire and regalia, turbans, sashes, and weaponry recorded with Dalvimart's characteristic attention. It belongs to a codex of sixty plates, among the earliest systematic European efforts to document the dress and ceremonial practices of the Ottoman world.

The listing describes the plate as a stone lithograph in the chromolithographic manner, each color applied from a separate stone in registration; close examination shows the layered ink application and slight pigment misregistration characteristic of the process. Printed on medium-weight india wove paper, sheet approximately 25 × 35.5 cm (10 × 14 in), from the original large-format first edition, later reprints were produced in a smaller format.

A separate title page accompanies the print, with descriptions in English on the front and French on the back.